Spread your arms out wide, Viola Davis, because they’re probably going to be filled with shiny awards next year after Showtime’s The First Lady debuts.
In the new teaser for the drama anthology series, Davis transforms into former first lady Michelle Obama in such a way that we can only assume she has another Golden Globe or Emmy coming her way. Ditto for her co-stars Michelle Pfeiffer, who takes on the role of Betty Ford, and Gillian Anderson, who plays Eleanor Roosevelt.
The minute-long clip hints at the drama and the challenges each woman faced during their respective husband’s tenure in the White House. “They want to turn me into a Black Martha Stewart?” asks Davis, pitch-perfect as Obama. “I have done everything I was supposed to do,” cries Pfeiffer’s Ford to her husband, played by The Dark Knight’s Aaron Eckhart. And as vocal activist Roosevelt, Anderson flexes some campy accent work while declaring, “You have a wife who has a life of her own.”
According to Showtime’s website, The First Lady seeks to reframe modern American history through the eyes of the uniquely powerful women who played a role in shaping it, often behind the scenes. From showrunner Cathy Schulman, the hour-long show is set to premiere sometime this spring. Susanne Bier, the director behind the juicy HBO miniseries The Undoing, will be directing all of season one.
The starry ensemble cast includes Dakota Fanning as Gerald and Betty Ford’s teenage daughter Susan, Kiefer Sutherland as Franklin D. Roosevelt, and O-T Fagbenle as Barack Obama. Lily Rabe, Ellen Burstyn, Eliza Scanlen, Judy Greer, and Kristine Froseth also have supporting roles.
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